Food Transition

Fundamental to the region's development model

Food planning is taking on greater importance in land-use planning and development policies throughout the Lisbon metropolitan area.

The challenges we face today—such as climate change and security crises in Europe and around the world—require the adoption of public policies that make local food systems more resilient, safe, inclusive, accessible, and sustainable.

Currently, we rely on long and volatile food supply chains that make it difficult to access healthy food, especially for socially vulnerable citizens. Promoting short supply chains as mechanisms that bring producers and consumers closer together makes healthy food more accessible, allowing the food system to be less vulnerable to external contingencies that hinder access and the sustainability of the food system.

It is also important to note that making this sector more productive ensures better working conditions and fairer, more decent wages for workers in the sector.

The Lisbon Metropolitan Area is taking the lead in this process by promoting integrated and coordinated policies that make the food sector more sustainable, resilient, safe, and inclusive.

The Food Transition Strategy, publicly unveiled in March 2025, is the result of a collaborative and participatory process that brought together a diverse group of civil society stakeholders, reflecting a commitment to making the metropolitan food system more resilient, safe, inclusive, and sustainable. 

As a result of its work in the area of food transition, the Lisbon Metropolitan Area was elected in March of this year to theSteering Committee of the Milan Urban Food Pact (MUFPP), an organization that brings together cities and regions from around the world committed to the common goal of making urban food systems sustainable and resilient.

The Lisbon Metropolitan Area joined the Milan Pact in July 2022, following its coordinating role in Foodlink—the Lisbon Metropolitan Area’s network for the food transition (together with the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Coordination and Development Commission and the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon), the recognition of the importance of this issue in the AML 2030 Regional Strategy as a key sector for metropolitan development, and the identification of the value of the agri-food sector within the region’s Smart Specialization Strategy.

The principles of the pact are aligned with the European Green Deal (as outlined in the Farm-to-Fork Strategy), the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the CAP Strategic Plan for 2023–2027, the National Spatial Planning Policy Program, and the Innovation Agenda for Agriculture 2030.

Strategy for the Food Transition in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area

AML has developed theStrategy for the Food Transition in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, which places greater emphasis on food planning within land-use and territorial development policies throughout the region.

The Strategy aims to serve as the starting point for defining a metropolitan food policy capable of integrating various interrelated policies, with a view to creating a sustainable and resilient food system that fosters business models and contributes to physical, environmental, and social health and well-being.

Such a policy can be coordinated through various governance structures, including public entities (such as municipalities, associations of municipalities, and regional or national entities), as well as other actors from the public and private sectors, both governmental and nongovernmental.

This is addressed to all stakeholders in the Metropolitan Food System (MFS) who are tasked with driving the food transition through MFS planning, generating co-benefits in innovative ways—namely, the production of healthy, appropriate, and safe food—while taking into account social and environmental justice considerations and aligning lifestyles with dietary patterns that have a low environmental impact.

It is expected that this will be implemented by building collaborative interfaces between research, policy, and practice, in order to put into action strategic measures grounded in scientific evidence that involve a broad range of stakeholders willing to share knowledge, experiences, and commitments as part of a common agenda.

Foodlink – Network for the Food Transition in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area

The Lisbon Metropolitan Area has prepared a document that provides a concise overview of the strategic framework of FoodLink—a network for the food transition in the Lisbon metropolitan area —its integration into the Lisbon 2030 Regional Strategy, and the importance of the agri-food sector as a pillar of the Lisbon 2030 Smart Specialization Strategy (RIS3 2030).

As well as outlining the food transition in the Lisbon metropolitan area, the document also covers Foodlink's vision, commitments and guiding principles, and its three strategic axes (planning the territory for the food transition; the food transition as a vector for socio-territorial cohesion; and empowering and educating for the food transition) and their respective objectives.

Metropolitan food working group

In January 2024, the Lisbon Metropolitan Area created a metropolitan working group on food, which brings together elected representatives, leaders and technicians from the region's 18 municipalities.

The creation of this group reflects the recognition of the importance of the food system to the region’s development and its ability to respond to the new challenges facing the entire region.